The Utterly Predictable and Completely Mindless Attacks on Hagel

I think his vision of foreign affairs and defense goes beyond naïve and actually is malign. . . . The man really does seem to be an isolationist.

This is remarkable in several ways. First, it shows that the hawks’ arsenal of epithets and insults is now so limited that they are reduced to the oldest, laziest, most baseless canards available: Hagel is an “isolationist,” Hagel is an anti-Semite, etc. It’s as if they’re not even really trying. Second, the hawkish reaction to Hagel is even more deranged than I thought it would be. Hagel is no more of an “isolationist” than Obama is, but then I suppose that’s the point. If one can’t stand someone as conventionally hawkish as Obama because he is not hawkish enough, Hagel would be even more infuriating. It’s impossible to portray Hagel as a would-be McGovernite, and the fact that he and Obama are frequently in agreement exposes how absurd most hawkish complaints against Obama are.

Hagel has not been a maximally hawkish supporter of Israel, but the smear against Hagel on this point is particularly loathsome and of course has absolutely no merit. If Hagel criticized Israel’s 2006 Lebanon war, that’s because the overkill and folly that war represented deserved to be criticized. If he believes that attacking Iran would have disastrous consequences and war ought to be avoided, that makes him unusually sane for a member of the political class. The fact that such a despicable smear is already being thrown around (albeit by an anonymous aide who won’t attach his name to the slur) reeks of desperation. The “isolationist” charge is much more amusing because Hagel has often warned against the dangers of so-called “isolationism” (and occasionally insulationism), and has been happy to fling that charge at others as all internationalists do from time to time. Being a thoroughly conventional and generally hawkish internationalist in his own right, Hagel has indulged in chasing away the non-existent bogeyman of “isolationism” almost as often as the people now attacking him. Hawks fling these charges so often at so many people that they have lost almost all of their power, and at the same time they serve to discredit the positions of the people lobbing the accusations.

We can hope that Hagel is now less inclined to support the use of force overseas than he was ten years ago, but that remains to be seen. I would like to think that Hagel truly has learned something from his previous mistakes, since it suggests that it is possible even for largely conventional Republican hawks to change. Even if that is the case, it won’t ever make him an “isolationist,” since there aren’t any real isolationists in America today. The label doesn’t even apply to advocates for a foreign policy of restraint and peace, but anyone so labeled by hawkish critics has to be getting something right.

That would be welcome news for non-interventionists, but it’s completely absurd. Hagel has never been and will not be a non-interventionist. That’s simply the wrong way to describe Hagel’s views, as I suspect his enemies understand.

“He simply does not understand the way Iran works, the way Somalia works, the way Pakistan works.”

This coming from some worthless notary-public safely making a big salary at a think-tank in Washington. At least Hagel is a veteran who has the experience of actually being in elected government to try an make a rational decision.

Whenever I try and read the AEI blog, posts by Rubin and Pletka are usually the stupidest. They tend to be short, vague, and consist of thinly-veiled threats against whatever it is they hate at the moment. Talk about lightweights.

Thanks. I didn’t realize I was quoted in the second half of that article until after I had published the post. I saw the other quote from Rubin. I honestly don’t know what he means. Is Hagel less informed about the behavior and structure of the governments in Iran and Pakistan than, say, John McCain? I find that hard to believe.

You may remember Rubin as a habitue of the Doug Feith cabal in the Pentagon. Bad business. Their problem with Hagel is that he’s an American – a real Midwesterner – who thinks primarily of American national interests. Incredible, when you think about it.

Hagel’s appointment will have no bearing on whether we go to war or not, that’s the President call.

Hagel will have a greater impact on the size of the military going forward and the weapons they employ.

For instance, I can’t imagine a former enlisted infantryman spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a fighter jet like the F-35 that is so unreliable it cannot support troops on the ground, which an infantryman will argue is the only proven purpose of air power in the first place.

In 2002, Michael Rubin labored at Aipac-offshoot Winep, lobbying for a US invasion of Iraq to take out Saddam Hussein based on new environment created by “9/11” attacks. Rubin saw the opportunity to deceive the American public.

I haven’t been following this blog since 2006, so, I’m not sure what you expected Israel to do. I don’t have any particular problem with Hagel, as the entire approach of the West to the muslim world is a incoherent mess.

I would compare the culture that the modern Palestinians create to that of ancient Amalek. What exactly is Israel support to do with a large group of people wholly unsuited to navigate the modern world?